I have a wedding cake Saturday, This is the first time where all my tiers have fillings that are fruit based. I stressing out about how stable it will be. I will be using the SPS sytem and the cake will be in the fridge until trasnport. I also am taking Sharon Zambitos advice and making a very stiff dam. The cake will be frosted with buttercream. My biggest fear is after the cake sits for an hour it will sag, bulge and even fall apart. Any advice on what else I can do to make sure this doesnt happen? Thank you!

I've never used SPS, but I've heard it will practically stabilize quicksand. I think your biggest problem are the bulges and blowouts you can get with fruit fillings. I have three suggestions about that. One was a tip given a while back by a woman who doesn't post here much anymore (mamawrobin, where are you when we need you?). She makes the buttercream for her dams so thick that she can actully roll it up into a log and place it around the edge of the cake. I started doing this and it really helped. The second thing is not to let your filling come up to the top of the dam, because with the weight of the next tier, it could overflow. And last of all is to make your filling as thick as possible. If I'm making a filling that calls for cornstarch, for instance, I put in a little extra cornstarch. If I'm using lemon curd, I make it with several more eggs than the recipe calls for so it won't squish around so much. Hope some of these ideas help!

Where I work this is what we do for fruit & mousse combo fillings and it has worked really well. It is takes a bit more time but worth it in the long run. No problems to date!

We build the cake in a cake pan lined with plastic wrap. Each layer has a two tier dam but the filling does not reach the top of the second tier. When the next layer of cake is placed on top of the filling we lightly press it down. Then we use an offset to go around the area between the cake pan and plastic to press around the cake. Therefore, if there were any bulges they are fixed. It is done with each level until that tier is complete. The cake does end of higher than the pan when finished but the goal it to keep the filling in and keep the cake level.

The cake goes in the fridge for about an hour then the crumb coat is put on the cake. The cake goes back in the fridge for that to set up then the cake is frosted. In general we do not use fondant and our icing is white.

Hope this helps.

If you use a good dam around the fillings, let your cake settle and use the SPS you will be golden!!! The SPS will basically make each tier a separate cake and there will not be any weight on the tier below. Good Luck and please post a picture!

P.S. I too really miss Mamawrobin!!!!

When I fill cakes with a fruit, or soft-ish, filling, I use very stiff icing to pipe a dam (with tip #12). I fill each layer but not up to the top of the dam. Then after placing the next layer of cake on top, I take a seperator plate that is either the same size, or larger, than the cake and turning it so the feet are sticking up, I use it to push down on the cake and filling. I don't push down with all my strength, but enough to "set" the cake. Haven't had any issues with filling leaking out or bulging out yet.

~Chelle

thanks Ladies for your help! my SPS didnt arrive in time so I ended up using bubble tea straws and a big dowel down the center. I used the buttercream dam so stiff I could roll it out and then I took all your advice and didnt bring the filling to the top. Cake arrived fine and even though the pic doesn't look straight, the cake was straight.. the photo is in my gallery it is the most recent with the jade color ribbon and middle tier piped. All I had was my phone and the lighting was horrible. Tried to deliver and get out of there fast... always feel weird when the staff is sitting there staring at me..LOL Thanks again!

Looks great to me! Good Job!